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Rep. Elise Stefanik stated that she will want answers from the federal government on a limousine company whose owner was an FBI informant and was responsible for a 20-fatality accident in upstate New York.
In Schoharie, New York, near Albany, on October 6, 2018, a limo carrying teenage partygoers on their way to a brewery for a surprise birthday crashed into a parked car before plunging into a ravine. Multiple young couples and a family of four sisters perished in the early-afternoon collision.
It was the deadliest transportation tragedy in the United States in a decade, prompting Albany to pass a limo safety measure in 2020.
“One family had one entire generation of children wiped off. The area’s Republican representative, Stefanik, described the situation as “extraordinarily tragic” “Conversing with these families…. They are completely nonpartisan. They only want answers.”
After the accident, it was discovered that the limousine firm had committed numerous violations. The fatally flawed automobile lacks both federal and state certifications. The car was upgraded with an additional 12-foot carriage in the middle. The Department of Transportation ordered its removal from the road after it failed repeated random roadside inspections. Its brakes failed on the day of the accident. In the previous eight years, limo driver Scott Lisinicchia, who was killed in the accident, had been arrested twice on narcotics charges.
Shahed Hussain, 66, the owner of Prestige Limousine Chauffeur Service, was later proven to have been an FBI informant since 2002, after he was apprehended for conducting a fraud to help drivers cheat on DMV examinations. In 2003, he assisted the government in convicting an Albany Imam in a sting operation designed to foil a plot to sell surface-to-air missiles to Pakistani terrorists. In 2009, he served as an informant for a terrorist bomb plan against two Riverdale synagogues and an Air National Guard base.
Shahed Hussain was abroad at the time of the accident, and his son Nauman Hussain was in charge of the business. Later, the 33-year-old younger Hussain pled guilty to 20 charges of criminally negligent murder and was sentenced to five years of probation and one thousand hours of community service. Later, Albany County Judge Peter Lynch rejected Nauman Hussain’s plea and ordered him to serve jail time. The case is still open.
Shahed Hussain, the 66-year-old owner of Prestige Limousine Chauffeur Service, was out of the country during the accident.
Son of Shahed, Nauman Hussain, pled guilty to twenty charges of criminally negligent murder and was sentenced to five years of probation and one thousand hours of community service.
Stefanik, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, will have the opportunity to question FBI officials as a member of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, a prestigious position to which she was named this week.
Stefanik stated that the FBI makes it plain to informants that they are required to report any encounters with law enforcement or government agencies to the FBI. I believe the FBI was aware of all of these… run-ins with the law, but they did nothing. Therefore, they are responsible for this fatal limousine accident.”
“They improperly handled the source,” stated Stefanik. It led to the deaths of twenty New Yorkers from upstate.
The National Transportation Safety Board ruled after a two-year investigation that “Prestige Limousine and Chauffeur Service’s flagrant disregard for safety” was the probable cause of the accident. In addition, the report noted the state Department of Transportation’s “ineffective oversight… despite its knowledge of the carrier’s multiple out-of-service violations and lack of operating authority, as well as its inadequate repair verification process.”
Stefanik reaffirmed her intention to subpoena “all documents related to [the FBI’s] handling of that limousine company-owning source.”
Stefanik reaffirmed her promise to subpoena “all documents related to [the FBI’s] handling of that source who owned the limousine company” — a threat that now has real weight following the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections of 2022. The lawmaker anticipated that the FBI papers on Hussain would be among the “first batch” of subpoenas.
Under the direction of Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the congressional committee is planning a comprehensive investigation into alleged abuses inside the Department of Justice and government intelligence organizations.
The current location of Shahed Hussain is unknown, but he is thought to be hiding in Pakistan.
In April 2022, Stefanik’s office disclosed the FBI will conduct an internal investigation on the matter.
Shahed Hussain’s current location is unknown, however he is thought to be hiding in Pakistan, according to the authorities.
Carlos Uriarte, an assistant attorney general for legislative relations, cautioned Rep. Jim Jordan in a letter sent last week, “Consistent with longstanding policy and practice, any requests for oversight must be weighed against the Department’s interests in protecting the integrity of its work.” “Department policy prohibits us from confirming or denying the existence of pending investigations in response to congressional requests or from disclosing non-public information about our investigations.”
Stefanik dismissed the assertion, saying that the House’s recently disbanded January 6 Committee — which she referred to as a “Pelosi witch hunt sham” — had access to ongoing investigations without complaint.